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Fillon vows to fight to the end amid reports that legal action looms

François Fillon vowed to "fight to the end" at a rally on the Indian Ocean island of Réunion Sunday as a newspaper claimed that judges could order action against him this week. The embattled French presidential candidate faces allegations that members of his family held fake jobs as parliamentary assistants for him.

François Fillon on Réunion on Sunday
François Fillon on Réunion on Sunday Reuters/Laurent Capmas
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"I am being attacked 24 hours a day but I also receive countless messages of support," Fillon told an election rally on Réunion, a French overseas department. "I will fight to the end because my programme is the only one capable of reviving France."

Fillon and his family are under investigation but have not been charged.

The Journal Du Dimanche paper on Sunday cited sources at the French fraud office saying that legal action against Fillon and his wife could be launched this week.

Officials subsequently told news media that no decision has been taken yet and that judges were waiting for the conclusions of an investigation by anti-corruption police.

Two of Fillon's children, who were on his payroll while they were students and he was a senator, were questioned on Friday afternoon.

Investigators accused of abusing power

The leaders of the parliamentary groups of Fillon's Republicans party and the centre-right UDI accused the fraud office of abusing its powers in a declaration published in the Journal Du Dimanche.

They repeated the argument of Fillon's lawyers' that the body has no right of oversight over parliamentary expenditure.

Jean-Christophe Cambadélis, the national secretary of the ruling Socialist Party, in turn dubbed that claim an "attempt at intimidation of the legal system" and an "institutional coup d'état".

Another Fillon opponent, centrist politician François Bayrou, declared Fillon's behaviour a "threat to democracy".

On Réunion Fillon argued that there would be "régime crisis" if he is forced to stand down because it would "deprive a current of thought that is a majority in France of a credible candidate".

Gospel according to St Matthew

The candidate, a devout Catholic, attended mass on Sunday morning.

The theme of the sermon was from the gospel of Saint Matthew: “Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still together on the way, or your adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison ... Truly I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny."

 

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